Sobotka angry at “Politbühne” in the U-Committee – Austria

The president of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) is unhappy with the Ibiza-U-Committee, of which he is president: especially in the current electoral campaign in Vienna, the committee is degenerating into a “political stage”, he criticized in front of journalists . Sobotka accuses the deputies of constantly asking subordinate questions.

Although Sobotka has been criticized by the opposition for months as president and even had to take his place as an informant this week, he has not yet thought about retiring. Sobotka believes that he is constantly being attacked simply because he is trying to abide by the rules of procedure, for example when it comes to the question from respondents. “I will not deviate from my line of this consistency.”

He had expected the climate in the U-Committee to change over the summer, Sobotka explained, but apparently this would not happen, “especially not before the Vienna elections.” The inquiry commission is Parliament’s most important control instrument, but “it constantly tries to present its political position,” criticized Sobotka. The message is aimed at all parliamentary groups, Sobotka said when asked: “It always gets louder in opposition.” The president of the National Council sees a “clear game four against one”, all against the ÖVP.

For Sobotka, however, the problem is not so much how the groups treat each other, but how they treat the informants, as he himself puts it. The questions are very often accusations. Sobotka, of course, with a view to his own questioning, says that he himself is not finicky: “I don’t care. No high blood pressure or anything. Maybe a brief rush in the aorta, but then it was over again.” But that doesn’t apply to all respondents, Sobotka said. On the other hand, it naturally irritates him that many witnesses refuse to appear or not at all.

In either case, the president assumes that the U-Committee will expand. You have to put up with more days because you can’t get away with the program, because you see that there are only three surveys in one day.

After a turbulent start to autumn with the partial transmission of the Ibiza video and the change of chair by the president of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) from president to respondent, the Ibiza-U Committee will focus on the issues of filling positions and the “Edelstein Project” in the next week. But also the video itself or the announcement to be sent to the VfGH will probably still be a problem.

After all, the still incomplete broadcast or partially blackened transcripts of the video did not really satisfy the political groups. Both NEOS and SPÖ, as well as Freedom Party, want to force the presentation of the material without blackening. To do this, they will now examine the route to the Constitutional Court (VfGH). After all, MPs were able to sample a terrace scene from the Ibiza video with ex-liberties Heinz-Christian Strache and Johann Gudenus.

Apart from this discussion, next week he will deal with filling positions in state holdings and privatization projects. In addition to Öbag, parliamentary groups will closely examine OMV. Therefore, on Wednesday, the head of OMV, Rainer Seele, and the chairman of the supervisory board, Wolfgang Berndt, are invited (as the first and third person to provide information). On this day, a department head of the Ministry of Finance will also be available to answer questions from the deputies.

On Thursday, the “Gemstones Project”, that is, the sale of the Federal Computing Center (BRZ) to the partially private post office, which is apparently planned in turquoise blue, moves to the center. Edith Hlawati, chair of the Post AG supervisory board, and head of Post AG’s public law and regulatory management team, Torsten Marx, should provide clarification. Before that, on that day, the deputies will interview an executive assistant from ÖBAG.

However, it is questionable whether all three respondents can be interviewed. Although the start of the survey for the third respondent was postponed from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm for the fall session, the third respondent, a former casino manager, was not interviewed last week due to time constraints.